Stratos vs Stratos

Original Lancia meets new in the hillclimb of a lifetime. Hold on tight...

It took the team a year to set up, and it's an event he remembers with obvious affection. Walter Röhrl turned up, along with then Stratos kingpin and Lancia competition boss Cesare Fiorio. "The local police even closed the roads for us," Stoschek says in slight disbelief. (Later, we watch a video of the Stratos world rally, a festival not just of amazing cars, but also of hair, alarming leisurewear, and socks. "Don't mention my white socks!" Stoschek says.)

Socks apart, Stoschek is quite a guy. Having taken control of the family firm, Brose, which supplies key components to the car industry - virtually all of the car industry, as far as I can work out - back in the Eighties, he has grown it by a factor of 100. Brose now employs 20,000 people worldwide, working out of 49 different offices, and had a turnover last year of €4.5bn (£3.6bn). As a younger man, Stoschek was Bavaria's number one horse rider, and the 13th best in Germany. When a man like this asks if you fancy a day in the Dolomites with some cars, you agree.